What is Francis Bacon most famous for?
There are few names that shine with greater brilliance than Francis Bacon’s in the literary and scientific world to this day nearly four hundred years after his death. His is the life of high thinking, of genuine enthusiasm, of genuine desire to delight and benefit mankind by opening new paths of wonder, knowledge and power. It is the life of a man endowed with as rare combination of noble gifts as ever was bestowed on a human intellect, the life of one with whom the whole purpose of living and of every day’s work was to do great things, to enlighten and elevate his race, to enrich it with new powers, to lay up in store for all ages to come a source of blessing which should never fail to dry up.
Quick Facts
Identity: Philosopher, Essayist, Diplomat, Scientist
Nationality: British
Born on: 22 January 1561
Died At Age: 65
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Born in: Strand, London, England
Died on : 09 April 1626
Place of death: Highgate, London, England
Father: Sir Nicholas Bacon
Mother: Anne (Cooke) Bacon
Siblings: Anthony Bacon
Spouse: Alice Barnham (m. 1606–1625)
Education: Trinity College Cambridge, University of Poitiers
University of Cambridge
Interesting Facts About Francis Bacon
- Bacon was actually a beacon of the Age of Renaissance in the 16thcentury. A brand new world was coming to light with the exploration of ocean and the sea-way by the Portuguese and the Spanish.
- He was called the Father of Empiricism.
- Other notable people who lived in the same era as Bacon include Galileo Galileiand William Shakespeare, both born in 1564, and Johannes Kepler, born in 1571.
- Bacon’s father was Sir Nicholas Bacon, who held the powerful government position of Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.
- His mother was Anne Cooke, a scholar, translator, and holder of strong Puritan beliefs. She tried hard to ensure that her children were as well-educated and as puritanical as she was.
- Anne Cooke’s father, Sir Anthony Cooke had been tutor to King Henry the Eighth’s son, who became King Edward the Sixth of England.
- Her sister was the wife of the Queen Elizabeth’s Chief Minister, Lord Burleigh.
- This connection attracted Bacon to the royal court and even as a child the motherly Queen called him her “Little Lord Keeper.”
- It is believed that junior Bacon received education at home only, in the starting years of his life due to bad health. He received tuitions from John Walsall who was a graduate of Oxford with a strong bending towards Puritanism.
- His lessons were conducted entirely in Latin, focusing on arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, grammar, music theory, logic, and rhetoric.
- On April 5, 1573, Bacon gained admission in Trinity College, Cambridge at the age of 12. He lived there for three years with his older brother, Anthony under the personal guardianship of Dr John Whitgift, future Archbishop of Canterbury.
- The whole system of education appeared to him as something radically wrong. Even he denounced the system of Aristotle, which was considered the basis of all philosophy those days. He called it mere “a childish delusion” and scornfully declared that in the course of centuries Aristotelian system had produced no fruits, but only “jungles of dry and useless branches”.
- In 1576 he went to English Embassy in Paris as a junior Secretary to Sir Amyas Paulet, the Ambassador of England.
- Here he polished his experience as a diplomat. Following three years, Bacon visited Blois, Poitiers, Tours, Italy and Spain.
- In 1579, his return to England was prompted by the sudden and untimely death of his father.
- As a youngest son his inheritance was meagre. He found himself face to face with the stern realities of life. He was at sore monetary straits at that time.
- He sought help from his uncle Burleigh for any lucrative position in the court. But Burleigh misjudged him as a dreamer and self-seeker. He refused to help Bacon.
- Much against his inclination he began his studies in law at Gray’s Inn. Following two years, he worked at Gray’s Inn, only to be admitted as an outer barrister in 1582.
- In 1584 at the age of 22 he became Member of Parliament at Melcombe in Dorset and afterwards for Taunton in 1586.
- Bacon strongly opposed Roman Catholicism. He began attending the Temple Church with his mother to listen to Walter Travers and became more and more sympathetic towards puritan views.
- By 1586 Francis Bacon was publically called to witness the execution of Queen Mary, the Catholic Queen of Scotland. Bacon openly disapproved the fact. With the help of Lord Burghley Francis Bacon rapidly progressed at the bar and would become a Bencher in 1586. In 1587 he was elected as a Reader and by 1608 he would formally take over the office of reversion to the Clerkship of the Star Chamber.
- Prior to that in 1588 Francis Baconwould become MP for Liverpool and in 1593 for Middlesex, he sat for Ipswich on three occasions and for Cambridge University in 1614.
- In 1596, Bacon was appointed as the Queen’s Counsel. During this phase, Bacon’s financial position remained dubious.
- His strategy for recovering his lost position by marrying a rich and young widow Lady Elizabeth Hatton failed, when she broke off with him and married a wealthier man.
- As such, in 1598, Bacon was arrested for debt.
- This time his image in the eyes of the Queen is improved.
- Bacon at this stage detached himself from Burgleigh and grew intimacy with the Earl of Essex. They became bosom friend.
- Lord Essex gifted him an estate at Twickenham.
- He advised Essex to undertake the difficult problem of Ireland Government. But Essex failed to suppress the rebellion and was impeached. He was put to trail for his failure. Promptly Bacon changed the side, time server as he was, and himself appeared as a prosecutor for his poor friend. Essex was beheaded. This trickery and meanness of Bacon is hard to understand and harder to forgive.
- After Queen’s death in 1603 when James I became the ruler he whole-heartedly devoted himself to come closer to him. He became Solicitor General (1607), Attorney General (1613), Lord Keeper (1617) and Lord Chancellor (1618).
- He also received the title of Baron Veruleem (1618), and Viscount St. Albans (1621).
- He spent money luxuriously and lived a splendid life.
- Soon the wheel of fate changed. The meteoric rise was followed by an equally meteoric fall. Charges of bribery and corruption were labelled against him. A committee from the House of Commons was appointed to investigate.
- Later, Bacon was sentenced with a fine of £40,000. The punishment was remitted by King and Tower of London committee. Bacon was imprisoned just for few days only.
- Bacon now withdrew himself permanently from public life and went all out for studies, writing, and scientific research.
- Bacon’s most significant work, Novum Organum(The New Tool), described what came to be called the Baconian Method of science. Published in 1620, it was part of his Instauratio magna series of books.
- He married Alice Barnham, a wealthy woman on May 10, 1606, when he was 45 and she was 14. But in 1625 they broke up. The marriage had produced no children.
How did Francis Bacon die?
- Bacon died in the year after their separation. He died because he spent too long working in low temperatures. This was the time of the “Little Ice Age” when winters in Europe were colder and longer than today. At the beginning of April 1626 snow still lay on the ground, and Bacon became inspired to carry out some experiments on food preservation by freezing a chicken. Unfortunately he became chilled (Pneumonia)by the cold conditions.
- He was buried at St. Michael’s Church, St Albans.
- On his deathbed, he wrote: “… I was also desirous to try an experiment or two touching the conservation and in duration of bodies. As for the experiment itself, it succeeded excellently well…”
Also Read:
o Francis Bacon
o Letter to Lord Arundel